Islamabad: Pakistan today said it was ready for mediation between the Afghan
government and the Taliban as it extended support to Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani's political process in the war-torn country.
Speaking
at the second Kabul Process conference, Ghani yesterday said that his
government was ready to recognise the Taliban as a political group and
offered unconditional talks with the militant group to "save the
country".
The Afghan Taliban are a political entity and Pakistan
supports the dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban,
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told journalists here.
"The talks
between the Taliban and the Afghan government are actually discussions
between two political forces, and Pakistan will support it Pakistan is
also ready for one-on-one mediation with the Afghan Taliban," he said.
He
said Pakistan wants peace and stability in the neighbouring country,
while stressing that there was no military solution to the Afghan
conflict.
The foreign minister also asked Washington to strike a
balance in its policy towards South Asia if it was interested in having a
dialogue between Pakistan and India.
"The US can have an
interest in Pak-India discussions, but before that it should create some
balance in its South Asia policy," he said.
He also talked about
the so-called "institutional interests" in Pakistan and said that
practice of portraying interests of institutions as the greater national
interest "will also be changed soon".
Asserting that Pakistan
will frame its foreign policy keeping in view the national interests,
Asif said, "We will not sacrifice our own interests for the protection
of the interests of the United States."
"The effects of the 80s and the Musharraf era still exist,
Pakistan will not make the same mistakes now to keep American interests
above its own interests," he said.
He was referring to the
military governments of General Zia-ul Haq and General Pervez Musharraf
that allied with the US respectively in 1980s and after 9/11 to support
it against erstwhile USSR and terrorism.
PTI
